You can’t imagine your life nowadays without the internet. We all spend hours and hours doing various things, like work, research, entertainment.

Marty NoteSometimes it is good to look at a group of websites. This link includes 35 examples of rock band websites. The convention is clear. Rock band staged photo looking out directly at the camera, lots of texture and dark colors in the designs. Here is how any one of these sites could increase conversion 3x or 4x:

* Lighten Up - all that dark texture and color lowers conversion.* Calls To Actions - few CTA's (BUTTONS) hurt conversion.* Scream Less - visitors are fans, so scream less convert more.

* FANS - where are the fans (testimonials, games, contests).

* Games & Mobile - scream to download the app.

Of these 35 designs Metallica and Incubus would convert the best. I understand branding must be done, but this much screaming branding is obsessive and damaging to conversion. Sometimes the best brand strategy is to make it easy for fans or supporters to JOIN and CONTRIBUTE.

Everyone of these band sites feels like a lecture NOT a conversation. Funny concerts aren't like this. Concerts are a give and take between the crowd's energy and the band's performance one contributing to the other. Web, at its best, works that way too but not here so much.

I love this post about how to be a game designer minimalist because doing less is the hardest thing. The ideas shared are applicable to web design too.

This may be the most important two paragraphs for anyone creating a website to read:

The Basics

"The general purpose of minimalism in game design is to accentuate a game's specific elements by limiting the scope or detail of the other surrounding elements. For a simplified 'real world' example, imagine wearing a blindfold to place a greater emphasis on your sense of touch.

An entire game can be designed with minimalism as a core concept, but minimalism can also be invoked only when needed. Art, sound, gameplay, and narrative can all be subject to minimalist interpretations."

Read a great book, The Paradox of Choice by Schwartz, to understand why most websites lower conversion with too much choice. Designing a website creates the idea you can do more than you should. It's easy to create mess.

"Limiting" is an important word for any new web designer. Even as i write this I know chances are poor anyone working . on a websites wireframes is listening. There is something busy, chaotic and endless about web design.

Blockchain is coming and disruption will follow. Bitcoin is an example of a blockchain, but don't stop there. If currency can be "mined" and understood as an extension of those who use it isn't that statement true for all things?

Blockchain and the Future of Web Design via @Scoopit

As we shared in BI Revolution and Curation Revolution Blockchain isn't just for Bitcoin anymore. Imagining a distributed, verified and all but fraud-proof transaction network will change how we think about designings websites too.

The Google "float" where you and I can type the same search at the same time and receive different results is an example of hyper-personalization blockchains are sure to bring to e-commerce.

Websites powered by algorithms to read a customer's blockchain show the most relevant information to convert now. Lectures die in favor of predictive analytics and conversations.

When we learn, thanks to the blockchain, a customer just purchased something related to what we sell why show customers anything other than the products our data tells us will convert visitation to transactions? Answer: we wouldn't.

Internet of Things

The "life is better" promise suggested by the Internet of Things (IOT) is a harvest we only reap with creative use of blockchain. If everything knows everything about everyone, where we are head anyway, our ability to turn chaos into meaning, efficiency and a better life depends on a multipoint, verified and shared network.

As we noted in our Curagami post The Blockchain Disruption Is Coming Sun Microsystems John Burdette Gage was right - the network is the computer. And the only way our lives don't dissolve into a puddle of chaos, confusion, and anger is by using community blockchain to inform, personalize, and humanize the Internet of things.

Web design changes from static to flexible, from we create to we curate and from lectures to conversations. Like Google, we won't create a single, static, boring page. Instead, thanks to the blockchain, we will design interactive experiences capable of changing on the fly.

And we'll have flying cars too. We realize we've heard similar mostly unfulfilled promises before. And there are significant hurdles such as how most merchants feel about their customer information - highly proprietary.

If the web proves anything, it is the absurdity of "highly proprietary" thinking. What is exclusive when what we do is digital and so easily shared instantly and around the world? Answer: nothing is uniquely yours anymore.

We don't see the usual drip, drip, drip of acceptance for blockchain empowered, flexible and personal web design. Everyone goes, or no one and the undeniable benefits of using a "dispersed ledger" to inform our digital marketing is so holdouts will lose share, traffic, and loyalty.

Best to LEAD in innovative ways to use blockchain to inform your web designs since to do otherwise is to risk...well everything.

Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:

How blockchain will make the Internet of Things possible and change web design.

If you're new to web design do yourself a favor and read at least two of these free User Interface (UX) design books. You'll save yourself time in the end if you know how to design for conversion, engagement, and functionality. That's not to downplay the need for excitement, but nothing turns more users off faster than a hard to understand website.

Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:

Free UX books will help save you design time, energy, and frustration.

Watching The Story of Stuff we realized there were some things, some hard things, better told via animation. A human narrator would have made the hard stuff too hard, but animating the devastation even our favorite stuff like iPhone create stopped the "rejection reflex" long enough to listen.

Not hard to see why animation is so effective. We've been brought up on cartoons, Sesame Street and Simpsons. If you aren't using animation to teach, engage, and make points you might otherwise not be able to make your website is less fun, effective, and profitable.

Agree and disagree with some of these trends. The bright colors trend seems obvious, but not when you factor in mobile first. Mobile doesn't handle gradients well thus the great flattening of images into more traditional "web safe" colors. Mobile requires simplification across the board images included.

That is NOT to say arresting images don't matter. Arresting images matter more than every since your content must cut through a mountain of clutter. If you're using standard stock cut luck with that "cutting through the clutter" thing.

Better to find arresting images like the one that got my attention long enough to read and scoop this post :). Marty

Formaldehyde is one of the most volatile compounds and building component companies LOVE IT (probably for cost reasons). When you see "medium density fiberboard" think formaldehyde.

This Tiny House Diary post on Curagami shares the MDF mistake I almost made, how easy it is to make such a mistake, and who wood rocks. Our research shows another astonishing thing - low volatile organic compound (VOC) building costs about the same as toxic building.

If costs are a push then we build toxic homes because it is easier, cheaper and what builders know. Time to learn NEW lessons, build "green" and make homes that don't cause cancer in lab mice or humans. Read more about how I almost made a big mistake given the small one-room size of my tiny house in the Bathroom Vanity Validity http://www.curagami.com/martins-tiny-house/

PS. Find two great construction and kitchen cabinet resources linked in the post.

Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:

Today I wrestled with the bathroom. Monday I have a meeting with THD in Efland, North Carolina to wrestle with it some more. I'll document with another Martin's Tiny House Diary entry.

Best of Japanese DesignTurns out the best of Japanese design is pretty good. These 15 examples cross the thin line between design, art and commerce and so so with a grace and beauty you'd expect from Japanese design. I'm building a "tiny house" based on Japanese design so I love it.

Headphones Icons Design ContestToday is the last day to enter our Headphones Game Icons Design contest on 99Designs. We've guaranteed the prize and the winner will be asked to create many more icons, so sharpen up your Illustrator and enter our contest today!

Best Web Design Job - Hiring NowBest Web Design Job in the World is about Moon-Audio.com search for a new front end web designer, a rare event & possibly best web design job in the world for reasons we share in this Curgami post:

Squishy Bendy Color A new project from Adobe Research and the University of Toronto may take things a step further. Their Playful Palette lets you mix colors in a stretchy, blended puddle. The effect is downright beautiful. Each color mix is like its own little snapshot of wall-ready abstract art. But crucially, as you work putting colors to the virtual canvas, you automatically save the colors that you’ve already used around the wheel.

Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:

Sounds very cool great tool matched with a better UI from Adobe seems incongruous but we can't wait to try bendy squishy colors.

High Design PostersThese posters are messages in bottles. In many cases, their design is timeless, brilliant, and inspiring. In other cases, the looks are dated but those posters teach valuable design lessons too.

Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:

One of the best way to learn how to design is by looking at good designs created by others. I steal from women's magazines, art books, artists, and whatever source inspires, is handy, and can be adopted or adapted.

Going 3DIntroducing, 3D Yarn! A cool new spin on an old craft called needle-punch felting. Using a custom made machine, the material fibers are felted together. As YankoDesign explains:

"Introducing, 3D Yarn! A cool new spin on an old craft called needle-punch felting. Using a custom made machine, the material fibers are felted together row by row and layer by layer on a specifically shaped foam to create entirely new types of 3D cloth. The yarn is essentially drawn on the form which can be any shape or size. This innovative technique allows for waste-less, stitch-free and seamless creations of organic fabrics, like this stylish, seemingly monocoque sneaker that gives Flyknit a run for its money!"

Web design is, like most things, in the middle of an intense revolution. As the backend or reading and writing content to databases continue to move toward the front end of pretty pictures customers see and interact with designers will be tempted to attend a "code school".

Our Curagami post that places our experience at The Iron Yard Code school in Durham, North Carolina in the context of more than 13 years in web development. Before you pay for a school that will make many promises, read our code schools post.

Mobile Marketing TipsThis is a MUST READ post if you're a marketer trying to understand how mobile is changing...well everything. Shorter, sharper, and seamless is our quick summary. Shorter and more VIDEO-centric because who reads anymore.

Sharper because the phone is flatter, less able to share nuance and variations. Simplify, simplify and simplify some more is a good way to think about "mobile first" re-design.

Finally, the opening point about how mobile and LIFE merge for millennials is worth reading several times. A life that isn't on a millennials smartphone has no validation. It simply doesn't exist.

Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:

The key to reaching millennials and everyone else these days is that smooth, beautiful device in your hand. Smartphones rule and here are a few mobile trends you need to know.

Yesterday was metal roof day. I've always wanted a metal roof and that desire stretches back across long forgotten southern gothic roots. My family is from the south despite my upbringing in preppie Connecticut.

A few little things done very well often work better than many things done poorly

Design & Web Stories

Websites must tell stories, stories consistent with and supporting brands represented. Look at the examples in our YouTube video (https://youtu.be/IC4KHAIZKWM ) and particularly REI.com for ways to blend your brand's message and site design.

No Half Measures

You either believe in your designs, copy, website and brand or you don't. There are no half measures online. Half measures are like fear. Visitors can smell fear and know when they are being manipulated. Every webpage is s statement and you either believe in what you are doing or you don't. See the Red Bull example in the video for the impact BELIEF can have on marketing and movement creation.

SpaceGreat Designs need SPACE to breathe. White space may be the most important part of web design few think about. In our rush to crowd everything in we violate HBO's brilliant use of space, time and an unhurried process. HBO isn't trying to overwhelm or flood us into submission.

HBO would rather create one incomplete thread after another and leave them and us hanging. Space is confidence. When you're confident in your product, brand or site you do what you believe and learn from every interaction. When you keep throwing things at customers hoping they will comply, they never do btw, your marketing looks chaotic and confusing. Confused customers do many things buying and advocating are rarely among them.

Brilliant Little ThingsHave you noticed how DARK the Westworld lab is? If you're wondering why Westworld's titles are so amazing look no further than the dark lab. Creating the CGI needed to have a cool lab is expensive. Better to create a great title sequence and leave the lab a little seedy and rundown since doing so saves money and helps the plot.

Websites can't look "seedy" so much these days, but they can do a few things brilliantly and let the credit spread. When asked how teams I've managed made over $30M in online sales I often explain it was what we DIDN'T do that mattered most.

The list of things we needed to do was always infinite, so we were strict in the very few things we did and could do. HBO proves the point. Spending millions on the lab would rob the show of it's seedy underbelly. Better to create a great title sequence with a few brilliant pieces like the robot dipper and the "world overview" than try and do it all.

This Curagami post shares the 3 easy steps to building online community. This is not to imply building online community is easy since it is not. Winning hearts, minds and loyalty online isn't easy, but the steps you need to take are known and get easier as you practice, practice and practice failing in public more and more.

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.